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("omega-3" is the Research Designation for "Omega-3" oils) |
On May 28, 2003, the Executive Office
of the President, through the Office of Management
and Budget, wrote a letter to the US Department
of Agriculture and to the Department of Health
and Human Services.
The letter ‘prompts’ these Departments
of the US Government to revise the Food Guide
Pyramid (recommendations to consumers about
what to eat each day) and the Dietary Guidelines
(affect the content of more than 25 million
school lunches) to reflect the damage done
to health by trans fats and the benefits
that come from increasing essential omega-3 (omega-3)
fats in the diet.
Both of these points are really good news,
because the research confirming the danger
of trans fats and the benefits of omega-3
on health are overwhelming. I have addressed trans fats
in detail in another article (FDA
Requires trans Fat Labeling on Foods
by 2006), and will focus here primarily
on the essential omega-3 fatty acid.
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- ONE: omega-3
(alpha-linolenic acid) is ‘essential’.
 This
word is important. ‘Essential’ means
that the body requires it for life and
for health, cannot make it from anything
else we eat, and must therefore obtain
it from foods. ‘Essential’ also
means that too little leads to degenerative
symptoms due to omega-3 deficiency, and too
little for too long shortens life by resulting
in death. The good news on ‘essential’ means
that return of sufficient omega-3 to a deficient
diet leads to reversal of omega-3 deficiency-based
degenerative symptoms, and re-establishment
of health.
- TWO: omega-3
intake is down to 16% of what people got
150 years
ago, and in 1850 people were not
getting optimum amounts of omega-3. That makes
omega-3 deficiency the most common essential
nutrient deficiency in the diets of affluent
people around the world. About 95-99% of
the population is affected by omega-3 deficiency,
and suffers degenerative symptoms as a
result. (The next most common deficiencies
are magnesium at about 85%, and vitamin
B6 at about 80% of the population.)
- THREE: Every
cell, tissue, gland, and organ in the body
requires
omega-3 for its structure and its functions,
and therefore deficiency symptoms affect
all parts of the body. Most doctors are
untrained in nutrition. And most doctors
therefore cannot tell you that your heart
attack, stroke, or embolism were caused
by omega-3 deficiency, or that your arthritis,
inflammatory condition, or auto-immune
problem comes from not getting enough omega-3
in your diet.
 Or that your weak bones,
low energy, dry skin, overweight, obesity,
or type II diabetes (insulin resistance)
are the result of omega-3 deficiency. Or that
depression and poor focus (attention deficit)
can be from too little omega-3 consumption.
Or that hormone imbalance, poor healing,
mental fatigue, poor ability to deal with
stress, and symptoms of mental illness
(including schizophrenia, bipolar, obsessive-compulsive,
anxiety) and Alzheimer’s can be signs
of insufficient omega-3 in the diet.
- FOUR: FACT
- all of the conditions listed above readily
improve when the intake of omega-3 is increased. What
this means is profound. It means that
all of the above conditions are largely
caused, at least in part, by too little
omega-3 in the diet. If they were not caused
by omega-3 deficiency, then increased omega-3 intake
would not reverse them. This truth about
omega-3 deficiency-caused degenerative diseases
is inherent in the definition of ‘essential’.
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It is extremely easy to address
this cause of disease by simply increasing and
optimizing omega-3 consumption.
How trans fats play into this story
is that trans fats interfere with omega-3
(as well as omega-6) functions, and make omega-3 requirement
for good health even higher, and the health
damage (degenerative deficiency symptom) consequences
of getting only 16% of 1850 levels in the diet
even more serious.
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The letter from the Executive Office
of the President of the U.S. underscores the fact
that there are Fats That Heal and Fats That
Kill. My book by that title has been out for
10 years and sold about 200,000 copies. Its
predecessor was published in 1986 and sold
over 30,000 copies. My inquiry into the research
that led me to this conclusion began in 1980.
That year, pesticides poisoned me, and doctors
were unable to help.
The letter from the Executive
Office of the President of the U.S. also underscores my contention that
there should be a bottle of good oils in every
fridge in the nation, and on every table at every
meal. They are so important to health and optimum
physical and mental function that they should
be in front of the bread and milk. We can live
without bread and milk, but we cannot live without
essential fats or omega-3 fats.
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The foundational research that underlies my
and the EOP’s conclusions is published
in the most reputable research journals.
- The Internet search engine PubMed Medline
lists 597,453 published research articles
on ‘lipids’,
the scientific name that covers all fats,
good and bad. It takes 29,873 pages just
to list
the titles, 20 to a page.
- Under ‘essential fatty acid’,
there are 29,980 published research articles.
The listing of titles is 1,449 pages long.
- Under ‘omega-3’, there are 3,974
published research articles, 199 pages of
titles.
- Under ‘alpha-linolenic acid’, the
long name of the omega-3 fatty acid, there are
1,516 published research articles; 76
pages of titles.
Clearly, there exists a very large body of
studies that has consistently, for a long time,
pointed to the importance of good omega-3 fats
and bad processing-damaged fats to human health
and function.
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By
1983, I was so convinced of their importance
that I
gave up all my other career opportunities
and developed methods for making oils
with health in mind.
This seemed important
to me because oils were usually made
with shelf life in mind, and damage was
done to oils by the processing required
to accomplish the desired long shelf
life.
Health benefits were sacrificed,
and toxic molecules were created. |
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Healing fats become killing
fats by changes that occur in fat molecules
during the harsh processing used, and by exposure
of good oils to light, air, heat, and time.
If I have cause to be proud of myself, it
has to based on three efforts:
- The work I did to understand the relationship
of fats to health;
- The conviction to develop methods for making
oils with health rather than shelf life in
mind; and
- The foresight to develop – 10 years
ago - an omega-3 rich, trans fat free,
all-in-one oil blend that provides everything
we need from fats: omega-3, omega-6, antioxidants,
phytosterols, lecithin and ‘minor’ ingredients
with major health benefits—and nothing
that we should avoid.
The
letter from the Executive Office of the President shows
irrevocably that the recognition that good and
bad fats deserve is finally here.
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Content Copyright © Udo
Erasmus 2005
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